Books – From the disheveled desk of Nathan Bak

2023: Reading Like It’s 1986

Early in elementary school I was not much of a reader. I could read fine, but wasn’t really motivated to read a lot on my own. That changed for me when the family moved [back] to Belgium and I started fifth grade with Ms. Pamay.

Wendy Pamay is one of my favorite teachers of all time. She introduced me to Shakespeare as our class worked on “The Scottish Play”. We sewed frogs. We sewed books. We even sewed frog books. But the thing I remember most about fifth grade was reading. Every week we would fill out a 3×5 card for each book that we had read–along with basic bibliographic information we would also write a few sentences giving a summary of the book. Also, to earn an “A” we were supposed to read 350 pages per week. At first it was hard for me, but by the second half of the school year I was exceeding and sometimes doubling that amount. I had become a reader.

Despite learning to love reading, I didn’t enjoy filling out the 3×5 cards and recording what I read. So once fifth grade ended, I continued being an avid reader, but typically didn’t keep track of what I read beyond my memory.

After I created Better by December I decided that along with tracking things like pushups and situps, that I would also track the books I read. And so, here are the 48 books which I read in 2023 (and the date I finished reading each book):

01/07/23	The Priory of the Orange Tree
01/12/23	Jade City
01/24/23	Jade War
02/02/23	The Golden Apples of the Sun
02/13/23	Jade Legacy
02/15/23	The Reflection on Mount Vitaki
02/19/23	The Dream Thief
02/20/23	Clockwork Princess
02/26/23	The Perfect Perfume and Other Tales
03/03/23	Card Sharp Silver
03/09/23	Prohibition Orcs
03/12/23	Clockwork Heart
04/01/23	War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches
04/08/23	Shadow Warrior: The CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles
04/13/23	Steampunks and Other Heavy Hitters
04/15/23	Fiction River Presents: Sorcery & Steam
05/29/23	A Kamigata Anthology: Literature from Japan’s Metropolitan Centers, 1600–1750
06/03/23	The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England (Secret Projects 2)
06/08/23	Tress of the Emerald Sea: A Cosmere Novel (Secret Projects 1)
06/19/23	The Dark Forest
06/21/23	Milky Way Railroad
06/28/23	A Shameful Life
07/01/23	Doomsday Match (The Dresden Codex Book 1)
07/04/23	Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: A Cosmere Novel (Secret Projects Book 3)
07/21/23	Death’s End
07/24/23	The Funny Business
07/27/23	Skeleton in the Closet: A Dragon Business Adventure
07/30/23	Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: Satisfying Stories with a Delicious Twist
08/04/23	The Nyte Patrol: Book One
08/06/23	Lover’s Moon (Canadian Werewolf Book 5)
08/10/23	Superhero Portal : An Action-Packed Superhero Origin Story (Dice Ford, Superhero Book 1)
08/12/23	Fat Vampire
08/19/23	The Magic Touch
08/21/23	Behold the Ape
08/24/23	The Hole
08/25/23	Tales from the Wood: A Modern Fairytale
08/28/23	Myths and Magic: A Humorous Fantasy Adventure (The Faerie King Trilogy)
09/04/23	A Cat’s Guide to Bonding with Dragons: A Humorous Fantasy Adventure (Dragoncat Book 1)
09/04/23	Deadlands: A Novel
09/09/23	A Good Running Away (Misplaced Mercenaries Book 1)
09/13/23	Just Another Day in Suburbia
09/14/23	Nowhere Man
09/20/23	Gardens of the Moon: Book One of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
10/07/23	Deadhouse Gates: Book Two of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
10/22/23	Memories of Ice: Book Three of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
11/11/23	D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II
12/02/23	House of Chains: Book Four of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
12/18/23	Midnight Tides – A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen

Books read in 2023

I don’t have a goal to read any particular number of books. Some books I read have under 200 pages while several had over 1000 pages so I don’t consider the number of books to be too significant. Similarly, I do not track the number of pages since the amount and difficulty of content per page varies significantly between books.

Without recording things on betterbydecember.com, I probably would have guessed I’d read about 30 books over the course of the year, but now, as I did in fifth grade, I’m tracking each book I read. Reading is awesome and I am a reader. Thank you, Ms. Pamay.

Not The Jungle

I think Upton Sinclair’s novel is one of the most misunderstood novels. Published in novel form in 1906, it was intended to be a sort of communist manifesto to inspire the working man to band together. Instead, it inspired significant changes in the US meat processing/packing industry. This post is not about The Jungle.

Half a century later, in 1957, Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged was published. From a literary perspective, beyond the obvious moral commentary, the writing contains elements of adventure, mystery, romance, and science fiction which makes it tricky to be placed in a bucket with similar. But the underlying message is generally understood.

To say that Atlas Shrugged is a thinly veiled promotion of capitalism, liberalism, and similar “isms” is being generous in suggesting any sort of subtlety, but that’s not to say that is not an enjoyable read. Like many pieces of literature, Atlas Shrugged can be read in multiple ways, but I think most people read it in one of two ways. First, it can be read as a tract proselytizing the various philosophies, ideals, etc. being exemplified in the text. Alternatively, the reader can skim over the lengthy monologues by the various characters and instead just focus on the engaging narrative. The choice is up to the reader and there isn’t necessarily a “right” way.

As a note of personal history, the specific two-volume set published by Easton Press shown above was acquired as an anniversary present. Similar volumes spotted in a locked cabinet at https://www.powells.com for an exorbitant amount in mid September, it took a few months of online searching (and a failed attempt when received in a less-appealing burgundy binding) to obtain the tomes at a reasonable price.

In my mind, I always compare The Jungle and Atlas Shrugged because there are so many ways they are similar and different. For example, both were trying to promote certain ideologies (albeit very different ones). Both are reasonably well-written and engaging stories. Also, for a long time, paperback copies of both were on the same shelf in my office. But this post is not about The Jungle . . .

Louie or Charlie?

Like many children, I was exposed to Alice and Wonderland and many other fantastical creations of Louis Carroll via book and screen. I found the stories palatable but not among my favorites. It was not until I was a bit older that I began to better appreciate the cleverness behind much of the writing

During my junior year of high school I encountered Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter. The book interweaves math, art, and music in a study of cognition and, to my delight, alternating chapters were written in a Louis Carroll-ish style using curious creatures engaging in odd activities and conversation to depict various theory. Gödel, Escher, Bach influenced me in a variety of ways, but germane to this post was it made me reevaluate actual Louis Carroll texts.

The next year I wrote my Senior Paper about the logic in the writings of Lewis Carroll. I learned that “Lewis Carroll” was actually a pen name for logician and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Within his various “children’s” stories are representations of and allusions to many different logical concepts and I excitedly delved into different occurrences. The story didn’t matter as much as the concepts behind the story.

Years after that, while studying literature as both an undergrad and graduate student, I revisited some Lewis Carroll texts. This time I was focused on his word usage and structures. Sometimes in invented new words. Sometimes he deliberately misused words. Sometimes he embedded different poetic structures into texts. I generally refrain from diving too deeply into this sort of realm, but nevertheless found that just beneath the layer of silliness was a significant depth.

Originally I thought Lewis Carroll to be a writer for children. Later I thought Charles Dodgson to be representing math and logic. After that I found him to be careful crafter of clever and cryptic composition. Sometimes I wonder if I infer more that was intended by by the author, but perhaps that doesn’t really matter. In the words of Lewis/Charles: “Words mean more than we mean to express when we use them: so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer meant.”

Warning: Banned Content

Recently the family has been watching The Muppet Show on the Disney+ platform. As has been widely publicized, some of the episodes are preceded with a content warning and so we have made it a game to try to determine the offending portion of the episodes that would merit the warning. For example, in the Steve Martin episode, was it when he sings in “Chinese”? Apparently the Swedish Chef is OK–he appears in many episodes without the warning including one where he speaks “Mock Japanese”.

Months before, while perusing the Internet, I came across a list of banned books (past and current) and found it contained a lot of great books. Going through the list I saw many that are already part of the home library, but also identified some gaps that needed to be filled. In particular there were a few books that I know my wife would enjoy so I obtained nice, hardbound copies.

On the list were also various books that I have read before and have no desire read again. There were also various books that for which I have no desire to read even once. I don’t want those books in my home. It’s interesting to lookup why some of the books are banned and also to compare different lists of banned books. Overall, I have found various lists to be a good source of ideas of things to read, but definitely not a comprehensive or even reliable source of quality books. Some banned books are not worth reading (but perhaps shouldn’t be banned).

Many of the banned books are time-tested classics and thinking about such great literature being banned evokes images of historical factions burning books because of the radical ideas contained within. However, in the few months that we’ve had our banned book display in the foyer, my kids saw in the news about certain books being pulled off school and public library shelves–in a couple cases they found our home copies and added to the display.

I find the Disney+ content warnings for The Muppet Show to be silly, but I appreciate that Disney still makes the content available instead of withholding the entertaining shows for various ill-defined reasons. As for books being banned, there are a lot of books out there that I might find offensive–I choose not to read them. There are also books that I do choose to read in spite of the opinions of others.

A Changing Castle, a Change in Theme

I am not the target audience for Tuesdays at the Castle or the other books in the series. Likewise, the books are of little interest to my three sons. My wife describes them as “cute and predictable”. However they do tell stories which interest my daughter who gets excited when she is interested in something and who loves to share her excitement.

I suppose I should be honored that my daughter brought Tuesdays at the Castle to me as soon as she finished reading it so that I could [presumably likewise] enjoy the text. While I thought the concept of a castle that irregularly changes on a regular basis to be interesting, overall I think my impressions were that of a reader who is reading a book target towards young girls and is not part of said target audience. Nevertheless, it is not the worst thing I have read and it allowed for various conversation with my daughter. At her urging I think I have read all but one of the books in the series.

For many years (even predating the birth of the girl-child), my family has read various books at the table after dinner. With three older brothers, the books selected are frequently not the books my daughter would choose. Or sometimes, such as when we read Where the Red Fern Grows she does get really into the book only to become emotionally scarred. So when she proposed reading Tuesdays at the Castle as an after dinner book, it seemed only fair.

Even with an only marginally interested audience, the reading went quite well. Despite knowing what was going to happen, my daughter would get excited and her enthusiasm tends to be infectious. She was also a good sport and did not get offended at [amusing but snide] comments by brothers or the less-than-flattering voice affectation I employed for the characters. So despite it not being a preferred text for the majority, a good time was had by all.

Another good thing that came out of this was a renewed effort by the boys to find “good fit” reading material for the girl child. With a better understanding of what she likes, they raided the bookshelves and found several books they thought their sister would enjoy (and they did a pretty good job). This led to my daughter being exposed to even great books.

I’m glad that the family read Tuesdays at the Castle together and that I read the books as well. In both cases the change in reading material theme brought about happy memories and positive interactions.

Why is it funny?

I have already written about how Randall Munroe ruined most web comics for me, but apparently I am in the minority since there hasn’t been a significant transformation of web comics or comics in general. It makes me wonder why I find it funny–particularly since I don’t always recognize (or perhaps just not appreciate) other types of humor. Different people have different styles of humor and may appreciate various comedic situations to varying degrees. This brings to mind Margo Leadbetter:

Nobody tried to explain to Margo why “it” was funny which is just as well since, despite her genuine desire to understand, an explanation would not have helped. But when the screen hit the statue (not an idiom) she got “it” (which was a related but different “it” amusing the others).

Getting back to why I find Munroe so hilarious, it may be that I am a suitable audience for the content. This appeared on the xkcd website for more than a decade:
Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).¹

I am too old (and too big) to be a child, not mature enough to be an adult, and studied Japanese Literature and Computer Science (separately) in college so the content isn’t immediately unsuitable for one such as myself. There is a website that explains each xkcd comic, but reading the explanations of why it is funny typically just doesn’t do it for me. Reading Randall Monroe amuses me without anyone explaining to me why it is funny. Perhaps that is enough.

When I Grow Up

I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. In fifth and sixth grade I planned to be a microbiologist, but that phased out as I transitioned into middle school. In college I studied various things including Manufacturing , Music, and Math, Linguistics, Languages, and Literature. I spent some time planning to be a college professor in Comparative Literature, but somehow that turned into my working in the software industry. But still, I don’t think I’ve got everything figured out. So I guess I’m a little jealous of the Potter boy who had Hagrid show up and say, “You’re a wizard, Harry.”

The story of Harry Potter is basically the story of King Arthur. A nondescript, British orphan is informed of what he is to be. A aged, semi-mysterious wizard oversees the education of the boy into his teen years when he comes of age and eventually is able to claim a role in public service. Along the way is various trial, adventure, and snogging where some details vary.

Apparently I am neither a wizard nor the Once and Future King. No messenger has arrived to reveal what I am to be, so instead I am forced to muddle about on my own. What an adventure that has been so far. I still don’t know what I’m going to be when I grow up, but I’m not dissatisfied with where I am now, and curious to see what the future holds.

Judging a Book by its Cover

I often judge books by their covers and when I saw the cover of The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart I immediately decided that it was a book that my family would enjoy. I was correct.

It is supposedly bad to judge a book by its cover, but I find it to be quite effective and, although I don’t necessarily have a definitive algorithm in mind, there are apparently some “rules” that book covers tend to follow. Over the last few years, I’ve read a few articles about studies where AIs are trained to identify the genre of a book from the cover. I’ll leave an exhaustive search of those sorts of articles as an exercise for the reader, but I will highlight “Does the cover tell you something about a book? Use AI for genre classification” (20 February 2019) by Viridiana Romero Martinez as a fun sampling.

In the case of The Mysterious Benedict Society, the title is certainly a draw, but it’s the fantastic artwork by Carson Ellis which make the book cover (and the covers of the sequels) stand out. The title could be for a murder mystery or horror novel or even a dystopian science fiction book. The art somehow makes it clear that it’s a story about children and for children yet it does not pander to the “norm” (whatever that is). It’s playful and yet dark at the same time. Although not apparent at the first glance, after reading to book one can see the level of detail from the text that went into the visual.

Sometimes I make an incorrect assumption when judging, but I was certainly correct when it comes to The Mysterious Benedict Society and the sequels/prequels.

The Mystery of the Haunted Cul-de-Sac

My cul-de-sac was reported to be haunted; not near my house, but at the other end. Most of the mysterious events seemed to be in proximity to the abandoned (vacant with a “For Rent” sign out front) house on the street. I had a carefully neutral response when informed by my daughter of the alleged haunting, but as a whole I was pleased–a haunted cul-de-sac is certainly interesting. At least as long as it’s the other end . . .

As the unexplained incidents increased, it seemed like we might need to prepare for a Ghostbuster’s style end-of-the-world battle scenario. But instead of succumbing to fear of the unknown, my daughter and her crony, in true Nancy Drew style, founded a detective agency to investigate.

I don’t recall having read Nancy Drew books except for when her path crossed with the Hardy Boys and they collaborated on a mystery. For my daughter, however, they have been a source of entertainment–both during the reading and then during the inspired adventures. With a sleuth bag in which carry detective gear, one is always ready for a mystery.

There was much detectiving and investigation as the girls went up and down the cul-de-sac and deliberated in their office (the gazebo). Eventually I was informed that all of the mysterious occurrences had a logical explanation. I think this was a relief to my daughter who replaced fear of the unknown with confidence of comprehension. However, now she needs another mystery. Also, I will miss living on a haunted cul-de-sac . . .

Sheldon, Cow Expert!

My family has many happy memories associated with our after dinner reading. Gordon Korman’s No Coins, Please is one of very few books that has warranted being read aloud twice as a family. There are many hilarious passages throughout the text, but probably the most memorable is when one of the characters announces “Sheldon, Cow Expert!”

Those words are perhaps not funnier than the rest of the book, but for some reason the first time those words were read over the dinner table the family was reduced to uncontrollable laughter which continued for some time. The second time we read this book, despite (or perhaps due to) being anticipated, similar mayhem ensued. And now that phrase and book are associated with one of may happy moments we have shared.

Although not extremely flexible, we nevertheless find situations where we can quote those now immortal words. Whenever we do, the family joins together in laughter and any unfortunate bystanders simply stare quizzically–we’ve mostly given up trying to explain. It’s just to hard to explain who Sheldon is, what a Cow Expert is, why Sheldon is a Cow Expert, why he announces “Sheldon, Cow Expert!” and why it is so funny to my family.